Ontotext in FP6: DIP, SUPER and INFRAWEBS Zlatina Marinova 1st SEE-INNOVATION KNOW-HOW TRANSFER EVENT Dec 15, 2006; Skopje

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #2 15 Dec, 2006 What is Sirma? Established in 1992 as a Bulgarian-Canadian AI Lab. Currently it is a group of diverse software businesses: –Offices in Sofia, Montreal, San Francisco, Sao Paolo, Kazanlak, Plovdiv; –More than 10 companies and business units. Sirma Group Corp, R&D backbone of Sirma with two divisions: –Sirma Solutions: e-Business, banking, C3, consultancy; –Ontotext Lab: Knowledge and Language Engineering. EngView Systems: CAD/CAM systems and applications Top-3 software house in Bulgaria, more than 140 employees 1999 EIST prize winner; ISO 9001:2000 certified

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #3 15 Dec, 2006 Ontotext Lab An R&D lab of Sirma for Semantic (Web (Service)) Technologies Active in several research areas, including: Ontology Management; Information Extraction and Retrieval (IE, IR); Semantic Web Services. Core business: research and core technology development related to ontology management, semantic annotation, semantic WS Applications in: Semantic Web, Web Mining, EAI, KM, BI, Media Research, Life Sciences Aside from the scientific matters, most of the Ontotext fellows are just professional software developers

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #4 15 Dec, 2006 Leading Semantic Web Technology Provider Ontotext is a leading Semantic Web technology developer, being: the developer of the KIM semantic annotation platform The lead developer of the wsmo4j semantic web services API and the WSMO Studio service development environment; the developer of OWLIM – the fastest OWL semantic repository; a major co-developer of GATE language engineering platform; a major co-developer of Sesame semantic repository; Ontotext is part of outstanding research projects: On-To-Knowledge, SWWS, DIP, SEKT, PrestoSpace, SUPER, etc.; 84 MEuro is the total budget of the FP6 projects Ontotext is in

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #5 15 Dec, 2006 Ontotext Facts Founded year 2000, part of Sirma Group. 16 employees (permanent, without the shared personnel and associates, internships, etc.) visits/day Number of scientific publications: above 30 Number of projects running: 15 More than 20 partners we directly cooperate with on projects Average age: about 27 Number of servers per developer: 0.9

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #6 15 Dec, 2006 Ontotext Participation in FP5/FP6 Participated in about 30 proposals: –We were active contributors to about half of them –Got invited to the others, often in the “last minute” 4 projects in FP5: –Two RTDs; a Strategic Roadmap; a Thematic Network –Rather diverse size of the projects and our participation 11 projects in FP6: –4 IPs, 6 STREPs, 1 SSA; –Total budget of the projects we participate in: 84M EURO For all the partners in the projects This is about ½ of the EC funding for semantic technologies Typical role: –A technology provider, focusing on core technology and infrastructure –Taking implementation and integration tasks within the projects

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #7 15 Dec, 2006 SME Benefits from FP6 Ontotext ’ s most important benefits from participating in FP6: –The funding for innovations, of course –Making good partners: leading research centers and industry players (e.g. HP, SAP, IBM, Software AG, Capgemini, British Telecom, IBM, BBC, RAI, … ) –You are forced to cooperate and know each other ’ s work –Maintain top-class expertise in the field –Produce liquid IPR, e.g. tools, which are already recognized by a critical mass of big players in the field Those benefits are relevant to any software SME

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #8 15 Dec, 2006 Participation in IST Proposals Successful proposal preparation: 2-6 man/months of work pages description of work At least one preliminary meeting with (some of) the other participants Another meeting for “negotiation” with the EC You get used to the process after the first 3 projects In the negotiation phase you might be requested to provide financial reports for the last 2-3 years If the company is not very big, a bank reference might be requested as well SMEs usually look unstable

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #9 15 Dec, 2006 Proposal Experience The successful proposals start at least 3 months before submission: –Have the essential idea already on paper –The core participants gathered –Agreed distribution of labor distribution There should be a strong leader: –Usually it is a university with a leading position in the field –The coordinating person should be a respectable senior researcher

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #10 15 Dec, 2006 Proposal Experience (II) Good proposals require dedication: –The preparation can consume 3-4 man-months! –Even more for IPs There should be a “proposal preparation meeting” –We don’t have a single successful proposal without a preparation meeting 1-2 months before submission 50% of the well-written well-targeted proposals succeed –Do not get bind to your proposals – some times it is just not the right time or not the right consortium

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #11 15 Dec, 2006 Ontologies Despite the formal definitions, ontologies are: Conceptual models or schemata –Represented in a formalism which allows –Unambiguous “semantic” interpretation –Inference Can be considered a combination of: –DB schema –XML Schema –OO-diagram (e.g. UML) –Subject hierarchy/taxonomy (think of Yahoo) –Business logic rules

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #12 15 Dec, 2006 Ontologies (II) Imagine a DB storing“John is a son of Mary”. It will be able to "answer" just: –Which are the sons of Mary? Which son is John? An ontology with a definition of the family relationships. It could infer that: –John is a child of Mary (more general); –Mary is a woman; –Mary is the mother of John (inverse); –Mary is a relative of John (generalized inverse). The above facts, would remain "invisible" to a typical DB, which model of the world is limited to data-structures of strings and numbers.

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #13 15 Dec, 2006 Semantic Web Services Semantic service description (using ontologies) Facilitate discovery of (semantic) Web Services Improve interoperability through mediation between heterogeneous services Enable static and dynamic composition of complex Web Services Two major initiatives – OWL-S and WSMO Web Service Modeling Ontology (WSMO) –Ontologies –Goals –Mediators –Web Services

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #14 15 Dec, 2006 SWWS SWWS - Semantic Web enabled Web Services Funded under 5th FP Type: STREP Coordinator: INSTITUT FUER INFORMATIK DER UNIVERSITAET INNSBRUCK Partners: 6 Start, Duration: 1 st of Sept 2002; 30 months Total Budget: 3,6M Euro Financing: 1,99M Euro Web site:

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #15 15 Dec, 2006 DIP DIP: Data, Information, and Process Integration with Semantic Web Services Sent for: IST-Call1 Type: Integrated Project Coordinator: National University of Ireland, Galway Partners: 18 Start, Duration: 1 st of Jan 2004; 36 months Total Budget: 16.3M Euro Financing: 10M Euro Web site:

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #16 15 Dec, 2006 DIP Vision –Extend the Semantic Web and Web Service technologies –Produce new technology infrastructure for SWS –To make Semantic Web Services become a reality as the new infrastructure for eWork and eCommerce. Partners –6 Universities and 12 leading edge Companies from 10 Countries make up the DIP Consortium formed Jan 2004 –DERI Galway, EPFL (Lausanne), University of Innsbruck (Austria), British Telecomunications PLC (UK), ILOG (France), SAP AG, FZI (Karlsruhe), The Open University (UK), Vrije Universiteit (Brussels), iSOCO (Madrid), Inubit (Berlin), Unicorn Solutions (Israel), Bankinter (Spain), Essex County Council (UK), Berlecon Research (Berlin), Ontotext (Bulgaria)

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #17 15 Dec, 2006 DIP Main Results –Open-source based Semantic Web Service Architecture (WSMO/WSMX) made public on a world-wide basis –Standard proposal through SWSI, W3C and / or OASIS –Practical and exploitable tools for the DIP partners on a large scale Real use-case implementations in different sectors –B2B in Telecoms - Demonstrates the added value of Semantic Web Services in B2B applications required and used in the Telecom Industry –E-Government - The delivery of more comprehensive and user-friendly services to citizens by multiple agencies at three different levels (Government, National, County) –e-Banking Provide clients with integrated banking services e.g. account querying, financial transactions, as well as other value added services e.g. house mortgages, share trading and mobile phone banking

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #18 15 Dec, 2006 Ontotext in DIP WSMO Studio ( –Semantic Web Service description development environment –Developed within projects SWWS, DIP, InfraWebs –Based on WSMO ( –The core is open source. wsmo4j ( –A WSMO API and a reference implementation –for building Semantic Web Services descriptions –Used in WSMO Studio, and ORDI ( –Developed within project DIP.

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #19 15 Dec, 2006 INFRAWEBS INFRAWEBS: Intelligent Framework for Generating Open (Adaptable) Development Platforms for Web-Service Enabled Applications Using Semantic Web Technologies, Distributed Decision Support Units and Multi-Agent-Systems Sent for: IST-Call2 (first sent to IST-Call1) Type: STREP Coordinator: University of App. Science Bochum, Germany Partners: 11 Start, Duration: 1 st of Jul 2004; 30 months Total Budget: 3.1M Euro Financing: 1.9M Euro Web site:

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #20 15 Dec, 2006 INFRAWEBS To develop an ICT framework, which enables software and service providers (SMEs,…) to generate and establish open, extensible and reconfigurable development platforms for Web-Service applications. Established in such a way the open platforms consist of coupled and linked INFRAWEBS units, whereby each unit provides tools and adaptable system components to analyse, design, conjointly compose, and maintain services (SW services) within their whole life cycle. …: –"easy to use" knowledge brokering unit, –used within a collaborative workflow and platform environment for analysis, design and composition of SW services –secure and privacy-preserving run-time and maintenance tools.

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #21 15 Dec, 2006 Ontotext in INFRAWEBS Developing distributed Semantic Web Service Repository and Registry infrastructure –Using ORDI Contribute to development of Designer and Composer tools, that use case-based reasoning to assist the user –WSMO Studio plug-ins Contribute to Execution engine development, related to composition execution Provide support to all partners in using wsmo4j and in creating plug- ins for WSMO Studio

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #22 15 Dec, 2006 SUPER SUPER: Semantics Utilised for Process management within and between EnteRprises Type: Integrated Project Coordinator: SAP, Germany Partners: 19 Start, Duration: 1 st of April 2006; 36 months Total Budget: 16.4M Euro Financing: 11M Euro Web site:

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #23 15 Dec, 2006 SUPER Partners: –SAP AG (Germany), eTel (Austria), IBIS Prof. Thome AG (Germany), IBM Research (Switzerland), IDS Scheer (Germany), Isoco (Spain), Leopold- Franzens University Innsbruck (Austria), MIP – Politecnico di Milano (Italy), National University of Ireland, Galway (Ireland), Nexcom (Bulgaria), NIWA (Austria), Open University (UK), Telefonica (Spain), The Poznan University of Economics (Poland), TU Eindhoven (Netherlands), University of Stuttgart (Germany), Telekomunikacja Polska (Polska), CEFRIEL (Italy), Ontotext Lab, Sirma (Bulgaria) Major Objectives –Raise Business Process Management to the business level, where it belongs, from the IT level where it mostly resides now –Put Business Process Management back into the hands of business people –Enable Business Process Management to scale up to a new level of complexity –This objective requires that BPM is accessible at the level of semantics of business experts

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #24 15 Dec, 2006 Ontotext in SUPER Developing dynamic composition reasoning framework and prototype Semantic process modelling environment Process execution engine first prototype Semantic Web Service based business process API Further development of WSMO Studio Supporting Nexcom for its case-study –Nexcom is the leading Bulgarian “new generation” telecom. provider

1st SEE-Innovation Know-how Transfer Event #25 15 Dec, 2006 Conclusion Ontotext is a globally leading Semantic Technology provider –Most of its products has been developed and tested in FP6 projects Ontotext is part of most of the major European research projects; the most successful Bulgarian participant in FP6. –For we have secured about 1M EURO EC funding. Plans –Put accent on commercialization of the results –Participate in FP7 to maintain our innovation potential Robust Semantic Technology …incubated in FP5 and FP6!